New Monday #113
Happy Monday!
My friend, Scott, was walking on the sidewalk, about to sip a latte, when a sports car jumped the curb and hit him going 50 miles an hour. And Scott's been in the hospital. The good news is that he'll make a full recovery. But it will take months. Scott's a big fan of New Monday, but he can't read or look at a screen because he gets headaches. So for Scott, here's a spoken word New Monday. You are all welcome to listen to it at the link below. It’s about 15 minutes long. I'm going to make this an ongoing thing. It has been requested, and I think I’ve worked out most of the kinks. And I have my friend Scott and his recovery for motivation.
It’s tax season in the US. The obvious song to talk about is Taxman, by The Beatles, but I already wrote about that. Something different...
Taxman, Mr Thief
https://youtu.be/1Js5tbjXXQE?si=P7xahG4tT_M-fS1V
Written by guitarist Rick Nielsen, mentioning The Beatles in a verse and quoting the George Harrison song loosely—the lyrics in the chorus alternate between "Taxman, Mr Heath" and "Taxman, Mr Thief” and at any rate, Cheap Trick has never been subtle about their debt to the boys from Liverpool.
The boys from Illinois worked for a few weeks in Wisconsin with producer Jack Douglas before cutting their debut album in 1977 at The Record Plant in New York City. Jack Douglas was really a superproducer, especially in the 70s. He started as an engineer (John Lennon’s Imagine album), produced the clutch of great Aerosmith records (Get Your Wings, Toys in the Attic, Rocks and Draw the Line), did The New York Dolls, Patti Smith, John Lennon’s Double Fantasy.
Jack Douglas discovered Cheap Trick in Wisconsin, and got them signed to a major label. He loved the band and recorded them raw and live in the studio to 24-track tape. The album was engineered by superengineer Jay Messina. The pair also mixed Cheap Trick at Budokan, the album that broke them wide open into the world.
At Budokan
At Budokan was actually recorded in Osaka to 24-tracks, and there were a bunch of issues, like a dead snare mic, almost no kick and all sorts of guitar issues. The snare was beefed up by routing the drums to a speaker placed on a snare drum and re-recording it, triggering a test tone oscillator to pump up the kick, and re-amping the guitars in the studio.
At Budokan was a huge hit, but the recordings...
https://youtu.be/HhuNErQE2_4?si=K8kZ3peXe68dw1Mt
There’s a conspiracy theory/controversy with At Budokan, that the band built it in the studio and that it isn’t live at all. Really? It sounds like a mess to me. You can hear dropped sticks, strange coloration that sounds like speaker cabinet resonances, and, of course, drums that get squelched when the band comes in or the crowd screams. But... on the big song, I Want You to Want Me, the drums are a lot better. And while clearly Rick Nielsen’s guitar track is on the left, there does appear to be an overdub over to the right, although it could be singer Robin Zander, who can definitely play.
https://youtu.be/dCvbWvQYOmI?si=lWofgCoUmuyvf8XR
Whatever. Cheap Trick was excellent live. Here’s a version of Taxman, Mr Thief recorded in 1977 in LA using the Record Plant mobile. It’s a good capture of a fantastic live band. Love the drums on this. Check out the variations in tempo at the top as the various musicians come in.
https://youtu.be/NmW5PIiW-94?si=MVu9TrS0MKNb4hMw
A Taxing Soundtrack
We made a tax season playlist for you. Turns out there are a lot of songs involving taxes, from Gene Autry in 1942 to Joni Mitchell and Primus! Kudos to VV for curating one of our best playlists, full of songs to expand out your library of ideas.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLe6ZCJT_4KPkoYdgXw2NhcjUpmrFimN4C&si=7Nfw5oKOY0QKOLTO
Brain Up
I try to keep up with the music biz even though most of the news makes me feel ill. A couple of quick things:
Ted Gioia is a music critic and historian who’s one of my favorite cultural commentators. He published a piece on where it appears music and art are headed. It’s a bit depressing.
https://open.substack.com/pub/tedgioia/p/four-steps-to-hell?r=n2vwz&utm_medium=ios
Here’s an in-depth profile of Sam Altman by Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker. Mr. Altman does not fare well. Even his friends think he’s a liar. What is so interesting about this whole thing is that Ronan Farrow, as a journalist, is a known quantity. He’s thorough in his research and thoroughly dangerous. When he goes after someone or something, heads tumble:
Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations — Pulitzer Prize winner, helped launch #MeToo
NY Attorney General Eric Schneiderman — assault allegations by four women; he resigned within hours of publication
CBS CEO Leslie Moonves — harassment and intimidation allegations
Brett Kavanaugh — additional sexual misconduct allegation (with Jane Mayer) during his Supreme Court confirmation
Donald Trump's "catch and kill" arrangement with the National Enquirer (AMI) — figured into his criminal indictment
Britney Spears conservatorship abuses — followed by resignations of her attorney and manager
It shows tremendously poor judgement or a misguided belief in some strange superpower that Sam Altman would agree to let Ronan Farrow rummage around in the junk drawer of his life. This is worth a read. If you have a New Yorker subscription, you’re in with no problem. If you don’t, sometimes you can read it and sometimes it is gated.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/04/13/sam-altman-may-control-our-future-can-he-be-trusted
A basic summation: the dude lies about everything and then lies about the lying. And this is the guy we want in charge of some of the most transformative and dangerous technology that’s ever been?
Really creepy animated cover image, by the way... made with Ai of course.
Let me know if you can’t read it and really want to.
We need something positive to end on. I’m thinking of all the great songs Rick Nielsen wrote—he is one of rock music’s most unheralded composers—and of course, Surrender comes to mind. And it is appropriate, with all the changes in the world going on, that we have to accept some of it, but we can’t ever give ourselves away.
Cheap Trick live at Daryl’s house.
https://youtu.be/7vABJyeT8RE?si=1ofvB69BCfH_HLa4
Oh my. This song is so good it makes me cry. Have a great week.
Warm warm regards,
Luke